“Under the proposed system, any patient with memory problems will be given a ten-minute test by a GP, using newly developed software on an iPad. It will immediately identify whether a patient is at risk of dementia”

My thoughts:

A positive development but the idea of a tablet in a GP waiting room exclusively for people who are suspected of having dementia doesn’t appear to be a very holistic approach to care and it’s a shame that this is a brand new completely unproven tech being used when there are clinically validated patient history taking questionnaires that have been used in waiting rooms and on clinic websites for years eg. Instant Medical History from PrimeTime Medical (Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2010).

In 2012 there’s no reason why such comprehensive validated tools like these aren’t deployed across the NHS (not just in a small pilot) and GP’s should also be providing them via their secure websites so that patients aren’t required to sit in a waiting room, screening can be extended to a wider population (eg as part of a regular preventative health check), other health and psychological issues can be addressed, patients can get documentation of their consultations, the skills of Doctors can be monitored more accurately, etc, etc.